Spreading The Kindness

“Kindness is Contagious. When we're kind, we inspire others to be kind, and it actually creates a ripple effect that spreads outwards to our friends' friends' friends -- to three degrees of separation.” David R. Hamilton, Ph.D.

How important is kindness to young children? Numerous scientific studies show that acts of kindness result in significant health benefits, both physical and mental for the doer and the receiver! Kindness makes us happier, gives us healthier hearts, strengthens the immune system, makes for better and stronger relationships and as mentioned above, kindness is certainly contagious and promoting it creates a better classroom environment.

In a recent Canadian study, it was shown that children who performed three acts of kindness a week for four weeks experienced an increase in peer acceptance afterwards and prosocial behaviour also increases well-being and the tone of a classroom can be improved. In the study’s abstract it states “Increasing peer acceptance is a critical finding, as it is related to a variety of academic and social outcomes including reduced likelihood of being bullied.” It goes on further to suggest that “teachers and interventionists can build on this study by introducing intentional pro-social activities into classrooms and recommending that such activities be performed regularly and purposefully.”

Let us help YOUspread the kindness at your school!

Kindness Coaches Steffi Black and Ivy Sims have developed a 4 week program to implement kind acts into the school curriculum, one classroom at a time. Featuring curriculum ideas from the non-profit site http://www.randomactsofkindness.com and founded on the belief that character education, emphasizing kind actions, should be a part of the learning component in our school system, the program includes three main components:

·Kindness assignment prior to the workshop so build-up begins for the event

·A 40- minute interactive workshop/presentation that reinforces kindness through activities and stories. Children are encouraged to express positive feelings about themselves and others. They also learn about empathy and how what they say and do can have a lasting effect on the world around them.

·Materials and assignments are left with the classroom/teacher to be implemented over a three week time period.

Our program can be implemented at any time throughout the school year. However to capitalize on what is going on in the community and around the world, some relevant calendar themes to build the kindness theme around include:

·Random Acts of Kindness Day in November

·Bullying Awareness Week in November

·Random Acts of Kindness Week in February

·World Kindness Day on November 13th

Let us kick-start a valuable program for your class and/or school that can have lasting beneficial effects on the tone in your classroom.